Fischer's Patent

The year is 1959 and a rising chess star beats one record after another one. The youngest GM in history, the youngest Candidate for the World Title... Still the main accomplishments of Bobby Fischer's career are in the future and for now he just amazes the Chess World with his beautiful play and ideas.

Here is how he demolished one of the World's strongest GMs:

When you analyze the game and Fischer's annotations that I borrowed from his iconic book "My 60 Memorable Games" you cannot help but notice the Rxh5 sacrifice. Indeed it is a typical White attacking idea and as Fischer's puts it: "I've made this sacrifice so often, I feel like applying for a patent". Indeed, just one year before this game Fischer beats another elite Grandmaster with the same sacrifice:

In annotations to his 22.Rxh5! move Fischer quotes GM Fine: "In such positions, combinations are as natural as a baby's smile."

You can notice that even though the Rxh5 sacrifice doesn't lead to a checkmate by force, the damage caused to Black's Kingside makes Black's defense really hopeless. These days the Rxh5 sacrifice is common knowledge and I cannot think of any strong chess player who wouldn't do it at least once. Here is one of the early games of Anatoly Karpov:

You shouldn't think that the Rxh5 sacrifice happens only in the Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defense. Whenever you see a fianchettoed Bishop, you should start thinking about the Rxh5 sacrifice! Here is an example of a very early sacrifice:

Even though it is mostly White who does this sac, sometimes Black can do a similar sacrifice too. The next game made a very strong impression on me since I was watching it live (Alexander Khalifman played his masterpiece on the next table). So, it was the Soviet Junior Championship and Black was in a must win situation...

I hope my dear readers you'll be able to use Fischer's patent, especially because in chess you don't need to pay royalties to the inventor